Transportation Access

01/16/2012

Judy Record, a longtime member and former chair of the Suffolk County Handicap Advisory Board (now known as the Suffolk County Disabilities Advisory Board), has passed away. She was 69.

Her husband Gilbert Record said, “I’m still reeling from it. I miss her so much. We were so close for 41 plus years. It’s just very hard to get used to it. Judy always had a smile – always – and I never heard her say a bad word about anybody. She was just an upbeat positive person especially so even with all her aches and pains. I think I was very lucky to have her and I wish I had her longer.”

The first Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities has died.

Matthew Sapolin, 41, passed away on November 29th. The cause of death was cancer, which he had battled since childhood.

Sapolin was born in Islip, New York. He became blind at age five from bilateral retinoblastoma, a cancer affecting the optic nerve.

He held a BA in Philosophy from New York University (NYU), where he was co-captain of the wrestling team. Sapolin earned the University Athletic Association Athlete of the Week honor three times and received the President's Service Award for Volunteerism and Community Service upon graduating. He also held an MA in Public Health Administration from NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service.

12/24/2011

U.S. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa, who introduced the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), is weighing in on the accessible taxi debate in New York City.

Harkin held a hearing called “The Americans with Disabilities Act and Accessible Transportation: Challenges and Opportunities” November 17th to reflect on recent developments including a class action discrimination lawsuit by the Taxis For All Campaign against the City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC).

The Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee sponsored the hearing where experts in the field were invited to speak.

12/02/2011

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) unanimously approved a regulation change to allow wheelchair users to sit in the front of taxi and livery vehicles, paving the way for the industry to purchase MV-1 vehicles.

The MV-1, which is manufactured with a ramp at production, is considered more durable than vehicles that are retrofitted to become accessible later.

Production of the MV-1 began several weeks ago and there is already a back order of 4,000 vehicles, with the first 1,000 sold out. Fred Drasner, chair of the Vehicle Production Group that makes the MV-1 said the company plans to sell 12,000 vehicles next year. The MV-1 sells for about $39,000 and Drasner said the vehicle’s fuel efficiency and natural gas incentives from the government will help offset the cost.

11/15/2011

The fight for taxi accessibility for wheelchair users in New York City is picking up steam. A series of recent events has thrown taxi access into the spotlight and a pending court decision could influence the future of the fleet.

A class action lawsuit charging the City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) with discrimination is winding its way through the federal court system with a hearing scheduled for November 22 before United States District Judge George B. Daniels of the Southern District of New York.

Lawyer Julia Pinover of Disability Rights Advocates, the nonprofit legal center representing the plaintiffs said, “It could be a long oral argument. If the judge rules with either party, the lawsuit’s over at the trial stage.”

10/17/2011

During and after Tropical Storm Irene passed through the tri-state area, people with disabilities and their advocates reported lack of accessibility at some evacuation centers and insufficient disaster planning for the disability community.

The City ordered evacuations from “Zone A” neighborhoods that are considered the most vulnerable to flooding. Susan Dooha, executive director of the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York (CIDNY) surveyed six of the shelters for those residents and found problems with accessibility.

The independent living movement is mourning the loss of a powerful force last month when Fred Fay passed away. Fay was 66 and lived in Concord, Mass.

Fay became an activist after being injured in a trapeze accident at 16 that damaged his spinal cord. Fay learned that he would never walk again and began using a wheelchair and then driving a car.

When he was 17, Fay co-founded a counseling and information center with his mother Janet called “Opening Doors” and the Washington Architectural Barriers Project that fought for accessibility of the D.C. transit system.

Fay developed assistive technology systems that use computers to empower people with physical disabilities. He was pivotal to the movement that achieved the passage of the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1975 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

09/30/2011

Assemblyman Micah Kellner is presenting an alternative proposal to the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s (TLC) Five Borough Taxi Plan that would require all new yellow taxis to be accessible. Kellner’ proposal has support from the taxi industry but the TLC says it is sticking to its own plan, which calls for only partial accessibility of the new fleet.

Kellner’s Access-for-All Taxi and Livery Plan (A4ATL) seeks to modify the “livery street hail” bill (A8496) that is pending in Albany. That bill was introduced in June and calls for 38 percent of 1,500 new yellow cabs to be accessible. The bill also proposes a task force to represent areas that are underserved by taxis and would issue permits to livery cabs to make outer-borough street pick-ups that are currently illegal.

07/25/2011

Nassau County has chosen an operator for Long Island (LI) Bus, taking the next step in its plan to form a private-public relationship to replace the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)’s role in the service.

A panel formed in 2010 to evaluate bids for a public-private partnership with the county has selected Veolia Transportation Inc. to operate LI Bus operations starting next year. The company was chosen from three bids. It is unclear how Able-Ride paratransit service will be affected by the change.